Feral deer are wreaking havoc on SA farms and the environment as well as being a safety risk on roads but an increase in funding is aiming to have the pest nearly disappear from the landscape in the coming decade.
In the next three financial years, the state and federal governments, along with Landscape boards, have committed $4.3 million in funding to feral deer.
An economic analysis by BDO Econsearch, commissioned by PIRSA in consultation with Livestock SA and the Landscape Boards, found for every dollar of investment in an eradication program, $2.70 is returned to the SA community.
In the past three financial years, government-sponsored programs have removed about 3000 deer annually from the SA landscape but the report found if funding remained at 2021-22 levels, there could be an "exponential jump" in SA's feral deer population by 2031.
National deer management coordinator Annelise Wiebkin says the report's findings, released in April, were the catalyst for the increased funding.
Dr Wiebkin said the primary production loss in SA attributed to feral deer was $36m but the eradication push was a great opportunity to reduce these losses to landholders to less than $1m.
The largest feral deer populations are in the Limestone Coast but Dr Wiebkin says there are also "considerable numbers" on the Fleurieu Peninsula, the Adelaide Hills and the Mid North area, which will be part of the strengthened statewide effort.
"There are about 40,000 deer in SA, which is nowhere near the populations on the east coast," she said. "It is achievable to eradicate them but if we continue to let deer numbers go up we could see up to 200,000 deer by 2032.
"We only have to look to the eastern states, which are a few decades in front of where SA is in terms of feral deer population growth. In both NSW and Vic, the feral deer population may be between 1m and 2m, making them very difficult to control."
She said the aim was to reduce SA's population to less than 1000 feral deer - less than 2pc of the present population - by 2032.
Dr Wiebkin stressed it was important communities worked together with PIRSA and the Landscape boards and used a wide range of strategies to control deer.
This included stepping up aerial and ground shooting and trapping and utilising technology such as thermal cameras to detect deer hiding in vegetation.
This thermal imagery was first used successfully last year.
"We know with aerial control in SA and other states we can cover large areas, and remove large densities of feral deer, but when the numbers become much lower it is harder to get the last few feral deer," she said.
"There are also tools being developed such as the deer aggregator which is a feeder that attracts deer to locations for more effective ground control but native animals are excluded from the feeder."
Limestone Coast Landscape Board general manager Steve Bourne has welcomed the nearly four times increase in funding for the next three years for their feral deer program.
A feral deer control program has been operating in the Limestone Coast for many years but Mr Bourne said with only a modest budget of about $250,000, mostly in board levy funds, in recent years it had not been enough to keep the population in check.
A recent survey by the LCLB found in some areas there were eight deer per square kilometre, which Mr Bourne said was not surprising when aerial control programs were taking out 660 animals in one week and ground shooters were culling 40 to 50 deer a night.
In autumn 2021-22 the LCLB removed 1166 feral deer from 140,000 hectares in two months.
Further shoots are planned for September and October.
Mr Bourne says the goal of eradication of feral deer in SA is "extremely ambitious" but with the additional funding he hopes a big reduction in the population will be seen in the next three years and a much larger geographical area covered
"The economic loss to primary production is huge, environmentally," he said.
"There is a huge impact on many native species such as deer playing on mallee fowl nests - and being a big animal there is a real safety risk for road users. Hopefully we can get back to where we were 50 to 60 years ago, where it was rare to see a deer in the landscape."
Livestock SA president Joe Keynes said the BDO Econsearch report confirmed the economics stack up to invest money in feral deer control.
"We need to keep (feral) deer under control - not just for all the economic benefits but they (deer) are a huge disease risk," he said.
"We have foot and mouth disease on our doorstep and they would be another barrier to getting it under control if it ever got in."
Mr Keynes said it was unlikely eradication would be possible so there would need to be ongoing investment in feral deer well into the future.
